BINI members Maloi from Batangas and Aiah from Cebu challenge each other to guess the meaning of common phrases in their native languages Tagalog (Batangueño dialect) and Cebuano.
The current frequency of language usage on the Web (e.g. 52% of websites in English) doesn't reflect the diverse cultural and linguistic needs essential for global access, highlighting the importance of internationalization (i18n).
Fuqiao Xue, @w3c i18n activity lead, gave a comprehensive report of past and future @webi18n work, collaborating with spec and #browser#developers to address gaps, particularly for endangered scripts and #languages.
If you are into languages, you are probably familiar with those conversations with your multilingual friends: you take arbitrary elements from the languages you both speak, and randomly squeeze them together into sentences.
That is any regular Monday for the Swiss. Schwyzdüütsch, a.k.a. #Swiss German is a colorful amalgamation of German, French and Italian.
What’s a word or phrase in a language you speak that describes someone who is nervous? Not just nervous about an exam or something but like, you’re at an airport and the person next to you is shuffling anxiously not wanting to miss the boarding announcement even though it’s at least an hour away, and they just can’t stop shuffling? More a way of being.
People that have experienced language attrition of their native language, how difficult was it to relearn your language? And do you have any tips on how to overcome mental blocks and other challenges with it?
If you are learning a new language in general, which techniques work best for you that I can try?
Currently I speak my native language very poorly (about A2 level), but English pretty much fluently. I'm taking lessons and I know native fluent speakers IRL, but it really is a struggle.
Hello there, I may look like 着 but I have four different meanings depending on the context! And just to make things interesting, I even sound different! Just which one am I when you read the text? Well, it's up to you to figure that out! Har Har.
Something I love telling people is that the Mandarin euphemism for ‘being horny’ is ‘I ate your tofu / I want to eat your tofu / they ate my tofu’. I feel like we should popularize that in pop culture. Like, you hear that in TV shows (mainly Taiwanese but also sometimes mainland Chinese)
"Bilingual Mandarin and English speakers living in Singapore also showed a preference for left to right mental time mapping over right to left mental mapping. But [..] also quicker to react to future oriented pictures if the future button was located below the past button – in line with Mandarin. Indeed, this also suggests that bilinguals may have two different views of time's direction – particularly if they learn both languages from an early age. "
#emdiplomacy was a multilingual affair. An #emdiplomat who could speak several languages had a clear advantage - not the least because he could thereby show equal respect to different parties, as this example by @dbellingradt shows. (1/2)
I for one would love to set it as my display #languages in #GNOME but it is not among the choices.
Aboot that, #Firefox has #Scots available fur ye tae wale, and is the most awesome leid in the settins ye can stert yaisin richt noo! 👌 Ah dinnae find #Shetlandic though.
Updated my Infectious global playlist to about 2,300 mid-to-up-tempo songs in English and dozens of other languages, plus a sprinkling of instrumentals. Feeling accomplished and enjoying the music.
Here's a #linguistic fun fact, the #Arabic word for constitution دستور is borrowed from #Persian. And the Persian word for constitution قانون اساسي is borrowed from Arabic.
#AI#GenerativeAI#LLMs#Languages: "Recently, Bonaventure Dossou learned of an alarming tendency in a popular AI model. The program described Fon—a language spoken by Dossou’s mother and millions of others in Benin and neighboring countries—as “a fictional language.”
This result, which I replicated, is not unusual. Dossou is accustomed to the feeling that his culture is unseen by technology that so easily serves other people. He grew up with no Wikipedia pages in Fon, and no translation programs to help him communicate with his mother in French, in which he is more fluent. “When we have a technology that treats something as simple and fundamental as our name as an error, it robs us of our personhood,” Dossou told me.
The rise of the internet, alongside decades of American hegemony, made English into a common tongue for business, politics, science, and entertainment. More than half of all websites are in English, yet more than 80 percent of people in the world don’t speak the language. Even basic aspects of digital life—searching with Google, talking to Siri, relying on autocorrect, simply typing on a smartphone—have long been closed off to much of the world. And now the generative-AI boom, despite promises to bridge languages and cultures, may only further entrench the dominance of English in life on and off the web."
Japan maintains an "official" list of kanji. But some "unofficial" kanji are also in common use - and chances are you know a few. Here are some of the most popular that most people use and know despite being on the naughty list.
I’m looking for testimonials from Chinese people regarding their experiences with oral production during #languages classes. It’s to help 1 of my learners, I’m teaching French to adults in Canada. He has a PhD in maths and holds a management position. He arrived here at 12 y. learned English and has lived there for +20 years. With his position he must learn French. I think there is a cultural blockage (?) linked to being afraid of making mistakes, not knowing and it’s very hard for him to speak.
Please, #bookstodon and everyone else , recommend your very favorite books and other #information to me. I'll read anything, audio or ebook or maybe even paper #book, #website or recurring graphics or whatever.
Feed me.